1. Field of the Disclosure
The invention relates to a minted bar made of precious metal.
2. Description of the Related Art
From the patent application DE 10 2010 030128 A1 a minted bar made of precious metal is known. Such minted bar is currently offered as 50 g minted and 100 g minted consisting of a plurality of interconnected miniature bars of the same size or weight, each having a fine weight of 1 g (fine gold, fine platinum) or 10 g (silver). The materials information “made of precious metal” specifically includes a precious metal having a fineness for gold, silver, and platinum of about 999.9/1000 gold, 999/1000 silver and 999.5/1000 platinum. The acquisition of such a minted bar with, for example, 100 1 g miniature bars is particularly advantageous compared to the acquisition of the according number of single 1 g bars, but more expensive than the acquisition of a 100 g standard bar. This is due to the fact that for known minted bars additional material, albeit a relatively small amount, is needed in comparison with standard bars of the same size in order to be able to ensure an impressed or embossed fine weight of precious metal for each miniature bar included in the minted bar.
A continuous metal band (for example of fine gold of a 999.9/1000 fineness) that is typically rolled up can be used for the manufacture of large quantities of minted bars as well as for bars manufactured according to a conventional embossing process. After the unrolling and possibly further processing steps such as, punching, etc., the embossing and, thus, the partition of each minted bar by means of grooves may be done in a single step, respectively. For this, dimensional accuracy and quality of the height of the embossed minted bar is particularly crucial for the required material addition, with the provision that better results are achievable with hydraulic presses of 2,000 t than with hydraulic presses of 400 t. For minted bars embossed with lighter hydraulic presses a higher amount of additional material is to be expected. Furthermore, these minted bars may still have a slight shape memory according to the originally rolled metal band and may therefore form a concave surface on the side of the grooves due to insufficient deformation. This disadvantageous form may for example complicate the storage of such minted bars in designated Plexiglas receptacles, since those may be pushed open or accidentally opened by the curved minted bars.